Commitments
by Amber6
Summary: AR fic - Piper &Leo are childhood sweethearts torn from each other, but will they end up together?


bucenterCommitments/b/u/center  
  
centernatz333@aol.com/center  
  
  
"Dan!" Piper's voice flooded through the old house, finding it's way to every nook and cranny, yet her objective was mere metres in front of her. "I... I can't do this all at once, Dan. You want me to make the dinner and look after the kids and feed the baby.. and...." Her husband remained impassive, his stance of crossed arms conveying his lack of willing to compromise or help her.  
  
"I only want to go see a game with my mates, Piper!" Why the hell can't you understand that?" The frantic screaming of their six month old Jason was filling the house, and Piper slammed her hands to her ears. A glance to the stairs sent their four year old Tegan's footsteps running unsteadily up the carpeted steps. Piper sighed but it was too late, and her anger for Dan grew.  
  
"Dan... I don't want to hear it. You never do ianything/i around here, do you realise that?" Piper ran her fingers through her hair and breathed out more calmly, meeting her husband's eyes briefly and detesting his blue glare of steely righteousness. iFine, I'll show you, you bastard..../i "I'm sick of it. Every Friday you come home and expect your dinner on the table and a dutiful kiss from the wife, and me to stay here while you go out drinking with your mates. Well, forget it!"   
  
She stormed across the room, grabbing her keys from the coffee table and removing a hair tie from her wrist, combing chocolate strands with her fingers and tying the mass of brown back, furiously tugging and pulling until her hair was secured. Her husbands' gaze merely followed her, his form leaning against the doorframe from the dining room to their kitchen.  
  
"Piper, what are you doing?" he sneered patronisingly. "You haven't made me anything to eat! What about the kids?"  
  
"I'm taking the night off, Dan. iYou/i stay here with the kids. iYou/i feed Jason and bathe Tegan and read them their bedtime stories. iYou/i contend with their protesting and the demands for staying up, and the washing up, because I'm sick of it. iAnd I'm sick of YOU!"/i She crossed the living room and grabbed her bag from the sofa, and without a backward glance, stalked abruptly from the room and Dan's condescending stare.  
  
The door slammed shut behind her, and Piper ran swiftly down the stone steps to her Jeep Cherokee. Her hands trembling, she turned the key in the lock, revved the engine and pulled away from the curb, the car roaring up the street. Her hair flew in the air con, the smile on her face grew wider and wider as his voice and the street disappeared in the rear view mirror. Freedom. Let Dan do what he wanted.   
  
  
center~~~/center  
  
Leo Wyatt slammed the front door shut as he entered the small house he and his wife Lilian rented in downtown San Francisco. He threw his battered briefcase and jacket to the floor and sat, defeated, on the bottom step of the staircase. His head fell to his hands and he breathed out slowly, allowing each particle of air to diffuse slowly to his surroundings. Peeling wallpaper, tattered carpet, and his wife's drunken singing echoing through the empty rooms of the house.  
  
"And I......." Leo cringed at the piercing noise, reluctantly bringing his face from his fingertips and glancing around the hall. "Will alwaaaaays looove you....." His wife's blonde locks swayed round a corner, dull and drab in the musky sunlight, and a saddened sigh left Leo's lips.  
  
"Leo..." Lilian stumbled over to him. "Do you have a ijob/i yet?" She blurted out, her eyes wide and full of sleepiness, lids dropping every time she spoke. "Are you iemployed/i, Leo?" She sat down on the floor beside him, and emptied the final dregs of vodka from the bottle clasped between her hands into her mouth. "Or are we still ipoor/i?"  
  
"We're still poor." Leo admitted quietly, allowing the words to settle in the air and taking the bottle from his wife as she fell, sleeping, into a heap, her head resting against his lap. Placing the glass to the one side, Leo gazed down at her form; her dry, gently parting lips as she breathed, her skin, pale and flaccid, and hated what they had become. Hated the life they had come to live. Hated the problems she now had. Everyday he would go to the job centres, the interviews, the shops and restaurants. Everyday he would return home unsuccessful, and find her passed out or singing, another bottle of vodka or whisky gone, another load of money down the drain.   
  
How easy it would be to just leave, now. Leave and never come back. Leave her sleeping here on the stairs, take his jacket and virtually defunct credit card, and just shut the door behind him. Move to New York, Chicago, Europe..... start a whole new life, where he would only have himself to worry about. And before he knew what he was doing, Leo's hands were gently lifting his wife's head, laying it softly to one side, and he picked himself up.   
  
Minutes later, his hands rooted through the drawers of the old dresser in the living room, searching under papers and stabbing himself on the loose drawing pins which fell in clusters to the corners of the ancient wood. Finally, his blood dotted in minuscule pinpricks over the various mismatching envelopes and greeting cards, his hands fell to the rectangle of leather he had been searching for.  
  
Leo drew out his passport, wiping his red stained hand down his trouser leg and opened the cover to stare at the photo. His face, once so youthful, now marked with stress lines and a roughly shaven chin. He pocketed the document and grabbed his wallet from the side counter.  
  
Her heavy breathing emanated through the hall, husky and masculine. In hours she'd wake, hungover, sick. But he wouldn't be here to have to contend with her vomit or mumbled burbling, or carry her limp form to their bedroom to allow her to sleep it off. He'd be far away, to his new life. For so many months, he'd put up with her. With her continuous money wasting and drinking, drowning herself in self pity. Leo placed a gentle kiss to her forehead, the smell of vodka poisoning the air around her, and took his jacket from the heap it had become. And with one last backward glance at his house, he stepped out the front door, quietly slipping it shut one last time.   
  
His old Ford Escort moaned to life as Leo slid the key in the ignition, and the door clattered shut as he reversed out the unsteady drive, wheels slipping over old stones and tufts of grass.   
  
His foot hit the gas pedal, he tossed his jacket to the passenger seat, and a grin came over his face. Freedom, as the old car sped out of the neighbourhood, out of his old life, out of her.  
  
  
  
center~~~/center  
  
  
The radio blasted out music across the speakers in the car, and Piper glanced at her left hand, wedding ring sparkling in the setting sun. Ahead of her, the frantic beeping of angered drivers seemed to blur into the serenity of the moment. No husband to please, no kids demanding food or attention or hugs. As much as Piper loved her children, they asked so much of her, and Dan did so little. Slowly, she allowed the breath to leave her mouth and sighed.   
  
The jam ahead moved slightly, the sun from the horizon blinding Piper and she gradually edged the Cherokee forward. This was ridiculous. The queue had barely moved in the last hour, and as much as Piper was enjoying the simplicity of the peace and quiet, and being on her own, she was thirsty and hadn't eaten since breakfast. Somewhat reluctantly, she switched on the left indicator, and pulled into the service station, parking her car behind an old Ford Escort, battered and blue.   
  
The car lot was packed; evidently several other people had had the same idea as she. Piper grabbed twenty dollars from her bag, briefly combed through her hair, and climbed out the car, her legs stiff and unwilling to move after over two hours of not doing so. Her hair skidded across her face, the evening breeze from the sea sending strands fluttering over her eyes and tickling down her nose. Tucking a few loose sections of gleaming chestnut behind her ears, she surveyed the scene.  
  
There were several small outlets; a gasoline station and minuscule convenience shop, a McDonalds, a KFC. Each place seemed to be packed full of customers. The last thing Piper wanted was swarms of people, crowded and blocked into a tiny space. Her eyes found two vending machines tucked in the corner of the area, their contents lit up as the sun dipped closer to the horizon.   
  
"Perfect." She murmured to the breeze, to the sea, to the air. Slowly, she began the short walk to her dinner.  
  
  
center~~~/center  
  
  
Leo's shoulder burned as a large man pushed past him, the warm takeaway bag he held sending Leo's stomach rumbling. The cashier looked at him expectantly.  
  
"Um... " Leo stroked his shoulder and glanced to the menu board. "I'll have a Coke, and - "  
  
"No Coke, I'm afraid. The machine's broken." The young man pointed to a sign right in front of Leo; iNo Coke Today./i  
  
"Okay, just a mineral water, then." He corrected, embarrassed. "And...um...a double cheeseburger with large fries..."  
  
"Um, sorry, Sir. No double cheeseburgers left." The teenager grinned gawkily, and a man behind Leo in the queue yelled forward, his voice steaming in the crammed restaurant.  
  
"Can you maybe hurry up? The rest of us do want some food here, mate!"   
  
Leo's cheeks burned as he turned to the back of the queue and mumbled his apologies. The cashier tapped his fingers on the till impatiently, and the customers behind Leo in the queue sighed loudly and deliberately. His whole head was spinning, with thoughts of Lilian, of the drive to the 'Frisco outskirts, of each face that glared at him. "N...never mind, then." He pushed his way through the crowd, to the door, each knocked shoulder and loud tut ignored as he shoved his fringe back with his hand and sighed loudly. Finally the glass door was in his reach, along with cool night air, and sanctuary from people.   
  
He sat down on a bench outside the swarming restaurant, his eyes scanning the area. In the distinct sat his car, his way to freedom, now a mere silhouette on the horizon. But as his eyes drifted to the highway, Leo could still hear the blazing horns and angry cries of "What's the hold up?" and "Get a move on!" One by one, the stationary car's lights flooded the road, and he knew he would have to wait until whatever the hold up was had been sorted out.   
  
His gaze fell to two vending machines in the corner of the parking lot, and, loosening his tie, Leo picked up himself and his coat and started off towards them, dinner of a bag of chips and bar of chocolate causing his mouth to water.  
  
center~~~/center  
  
Piper grabbed the bag of potato chips from the bottom hatch, and took her change as the coins clattered, echoing in the stillness of the night. A small wooden bench sat in the corner of the parking lot, to the side of the fast food outlets and subsequently relatively quiet. As she turned around to stand up, her body collided with someone else.  
  
"Oh, sorry..." She stumbled over her words, and the man began mumbling a similar apology. Mere silhouettes to each other, neither recognised the other in the darkness of dusk. But suddenly, the car lot was lit up by the street lamps shining down.  
  
"Piper? Is that you?" Leo asked incredulously, trying to make his eyes meet hers. Piper looked up, and her heart leapt to her throat.  
  
"Leo?" her voice replied, surprised, and she blinked back red and blue light spots clouding her vision.   
  
"Hey! God, long time no see! What on earth are you doing here?" His heart was on fire; he was so unsure of how to react to seeing her again. Leo's mind raced.  
  
Piper grinned and ran her fingers through her hair, still ruffling in the wind. "Mmm... long story. You getting dinner?"  
  
"Um.." Leo had completely forgotten his own name, let alone what he was doing. The flashing red light on one of the machines caused him to blink and brought him back to his senses. "Yeah! Yeah, I was." He looked to Piper's hands. "Processed dinner for you too, huh?"   
  
Still so unsure of how to act around him, Piper nodded cautiously. "Um, yeah. Needed some time away from the kids."  
  
Leo's heart thundered in his chest, and his mind seemed to turn catapults in his head. iKids?/i "You...you and Dan have children?" A pang of hurt ached in his chest as he saw the shadow of guilt lying in Piper's eyes, and the tears suddenly tracing her cheekbones.  
  
"Oh..." Piper wiped frantically at her eyes and stained face. "Oh... I don't know why..." She glanced up at Leo, who's concerned eyes gazed down at hers just like all those years ago.  
  
"Hey...hey, shh, it's okay." He rubbed Piper's shoulders and stoked her back. "It's okay. I know." Even as he said the words, Leo knew exactly why she was suddenly crying. Knew that he could speak the exact words running through Piper's brain as she sank her head, sobbing, into the warmth of his chest. Just as she had done six years ago, practically to the day. The last time he had seen her, and the last time he had felt love for a living soul.  
  
center~~~/center  
  
bSix years earlier.../b  
  
i "Dad!" The tears flowed freely down Piper Halliwell's cheeks. "I'll date who I want! Leo and I love each other!"  
  
"Love?" Victor ran his fingers through his hair as Patty, Piper's mother, glanced fearfully from her daughter to her husband. "You don't even know what love is, Piper! You're EIGHTEEN years old!"  
  
"So?" Piper's arms flailed around her, and the putrid bile of utter hate rose in her throat. "I know I don't love Dan!" She screamed, her voice hoarse from choked tears and spat words. "That's what this is about, isn't it, Dad? You want me to marry Bob's boy, because that would be GOOD FOR THE BUSINESS!" she raged, her voice cracking as tears came, and light mascara blurred into delicate silver eyeshadow, shooting stars streaking across her cheeks. "I don't know Dan. I don't love Dan. I love Leo, and that's what MATTERS!" her voice left her lungs, sharp and piercing, full of resentment. Her father stormed over to his only daughter, and grabbed her by the forearm.  
  
"You'll go and see Leo, now, Piper. You'll stop this RIDICULOUS crying, clean yourself up, and go see your boyfriend." He said it so calmly, so simply. Piper felt like screaming, that this wasn't calm or simple. That love never was. She wanted to tell him to stop treating her like a kid, stop patronising the truest feelings she had ever known. But the black of her father's eyes scared her, and she caught the words in her throat.  
  
"Dad..." Piper sobbed, avoiding her father's eyes. "I can't... I love..." her weeping was brought to an abrupt halt by a jerk to her forearm, sending rockets of pain shooting up her wrist.  
  
"You'll do as I say, Piper. You'll tell Leo, today, that you don't love him. You were mistaken. You're breaking up with him and he can't change your mind." He brought Piper's eyes to meet his own, bloodshot and hurting as she gazed at her father in disgust. "Okay?"   
  
"Fine." She sobbed, running from the room. She said it because she had to, because she knew there was no changing his mind. She'd tell Leo, but not how her father had intended, and she'd never consent to marry Dan. Never./i  
  
center~~~/center   
  
i"Piper! Wait up!" Leo's feet carried him swiftly along the waterfront to the spot where she had stopped, turned, tucked loose strands of hair behind her ears. He grinned at the sight of her, eighteen years old, the most beautiful girl on campus. He caught his breath and jogged the last few steps, stopped and sank his hands to his knees.  
  
"Double PE?" Piper guessed correctly, swallowing the lump in her throat, and Leo gasped as he nodded. "Coach made us do triple laps."   
  
"Triple?" she asked, and laughed forcefully. "I'm so glad I dropped gym in 10th." Sitting down on the grass, Leo gazed up at his best friend since childhood, and girlfriend since 6th grade.   
  
"Come sit here with me." He patted the grass beside him, and Piper, with the puzzled furrowing of her eyebrows Leo loved so much, dropped her messenger bag from her shoulder and tugged her knees under as she sat down, white sandals and pretty floral dress allowing her shoulders to tan in the afternoon sun. Leo, captivated by the sight of her, long chestnut flowing out in the sea breeze, didn't notice as she avoided his eyes and opened her mouth ten different times, desperately searching for the words within her.  
  
"Um.. I got you something..." He rooted through his pockets, searching for a familiar feeling of velvet within his hand. Finally his fingers found the box, wrapped around it, and withdrew it from his jacket pocket, blushing as he did so. Piper's ever watchful eyes traced the lines of his biceps under the sweater material, trying to memorise each contour and outline.  
  
"Leo... I need to... I have to.." She tried desperately, mind frantically seeking for the right words to tell him what she had to. But her heart tore at her, her mind chasing the speech which just minutes before was clear in her head.  
  
The tears trickled slowly from her eyes, and she wiped them hurriedly away. The box forgotten, Leo quickly moved closer to Piper and wrapped his arms around her, brow furrowing in concern as he felt her body shake next to his.   
  
"Piper? What's wrong?" Her sobbing became louder and she buried her head into the fabric of his shirt, dreading the next few minutes more than anything on this earth. Clinging for sanity on to his shoulders, the words fell, tumbling, from her mouth.  
  
"I have to break up with you, Leo."  
  
The words hit him, ate through him. Dug into his every pore and nerve, and Leo could feel them consuming his very being. In that spilt second before the pain came, he rested in the last glimpse of simple happiness; of Piper lying in his arms as his girlfriend, of the life he had known for so long. And then it hit, the sheer pain crashing into every nerve.  
  
"Piper?" He drew her away from him, still holding her, needing to see her face, needing to look into her eyes to confirm this wasn't some kind of sick joke. But the droplets of pure agony flowed down her cheeks, and her eyes wouldn't even meet his, traced with guilt and lined with near suicidal unhappiness.   
  
"But.. but why... Why do you... I don't understand, Piper. I can't..." His eyes searched her face for a reason, a motive, and explanation. Cause or grounds for the pain ripping through his heart and the questions spiralling in his mind.   
  
"I'm so sorry, Leo...it's my dad.." She sobbed, her tears trailing wet tracks of terror and blurring her face before Leo's. "I don't want to, but..." her bottom lip folded into her mouth and wet clumps of tearsoaked hair stuck to her face, as she grasped hold of his hands. "I love you.. I love you so much..." A heavy sob broke the silence. "But he won't understand, Leo. He's sending me away, to boarding school. He's going to make me marry Dan, I know it."  
  
Her words shot through Leo, blackened shooting stars, tearing into his brain and heart, and terrifying him. Not only for himself, but for Piper more than anything. Stuck in a school miles from anyone she knew or loved, in a place she didn't know, in a building where she couldn't reach him should she need to. Forced into a marriage agreed since her birth. His heart wept silent tears of despair.  
  
"But.. surely..." His frantic searching for words was brought to a halt by Piper's gentle fingertips on his lips, and she finally allowed her bloodshot eyes to meet his.   
  
"No." She stated simply, weeping, trailing her fingers along his jawbone and over his eyes, trying to memorise each detail of his face. The exact colour of each strand of hair, each fleck of aching green from his eyes. His image was imprinted in her memory forever already. Close her eyes and he was there, grinning and laughing, his soft lips pressed to hers.   
  
"No?" he asked fearfully, closing his eyes and trembling under her shaking touch.   
  
"We'll find each other, one day, I promise." Piper sobbed, her heat aching inside her chest, knowing it was up to her to be strong. Knowing that Leo would kill her father if she didn't end it now. "One day, and everything'll be okay, and we can be together. Forever, Leo." She whispered. "Forever."  
  
A long, shaking breath left his lips, and his fingers grasped round the velvet box which he had looked forward to giving her for so long. Since their first proper date, their first kiss at her thirteenth birthday party, since six weeks ago to the day, when they had given themselves to each other as wholly as possible.   
  
Leo's eyes opened, silent tears trickling from each peridot pool. Trembling, he lifted his hands to Piper's cheek, cupping it and bringing his face to hers. Their eyes met, looks of love exchanged. Forever love, never broken by the bounds of time. And their lips merged one last time, tongues slipping over one anothers, tears mixing as the two exchanged one last kiss. Shaking, aching, grasping on to each other for as long as they could, their lips moved hesitantly together. His heart ached for her, and hers throbbed as they pulled away, mouths feeling for each others as their lips parted. Keeping his eyes shut, Leo's hand reached for Piper's, wrapping her fingers around the red velvet box, and kissed her fingertips, soft lips causing her heart to scream for a release from this torture.  
  
Neither said goodbye; neither needed to. Her hand slipped desperately from his, her feet carried her slowly from her only true love. She didn't look back, and he never opened his eyes until he was entirely sure she would be gone from his view.   
  
"Forever, Piper." Leo brushed his tears away, picked up his bag, and walked in the other direction from she, each step an effort and each breath pure torture.  
  
"Forever." /i  
  
And as he held her in his arms, six years on, his heart still burned for the love that flowed down her cheeks and soaked through his shirt. And he knew that nothing had changed.  
  
center~~~/center  
  
They sat, holding one another, their catching breath and aching hearts equalling each other's grief and relief, as Leo held Piper just as he had six years ago, and she sobbed into the folds of his jacket. His face creased into furrows of concern, cheeks lined with two single tears as one fell from each pained green eye. He'd always believed his promise to her. Always believed they would one day met again. And he had known even back then that nothing would have changed. Knew, that with each breath they took, the love they shared, buried so deep, was surfacing again. And as she lay in Leo's arms, shaking with the emotions that she had held within her, locked up for so long, Piper doubted she could ever let go.  
  
Minutes passed, and neither dared move. She clung on to his shirt tighter, and wept more silently as this new reality passed over her. His face, which she had held in her heart for so long, suddenly just inches from her own. It had filled her dreams and encompassed her every blink, as the black flooded her eyelids and his grin would bring a rocket of pain though her heart, colliding with one of hope. Hope, because she had believed that one day, no matter how far away, they would meet once again. But at the same time, so much throbbing pain, because it hurt so much to think of what they had lost. Of the days they had lay just listening to each other's breathing, of the nights they had lain watching the stars twinkle above them and felt the safety of each other's hand encompassed in their own. And it had sent pangs through the deepest chambers of her heart to merely hope of seeing him again.  
  
Leo simply held her, held her as though there was no tomorrow, as there hadn't been for so long. No structure to his life, stuck in an indefinite period of abeyance, began when Piper had walked from his life and only ending the day she would walk back into it. And suddenly, she had. Appeared from the night, and nothing had changed in the slightest. Each fleck of brown flooded her eyes, memorised for so long, was the same, only saddened by the life she had been forced to lead. Each speck of love he had ever held for her was appearing one by one, as stars in an all black sky.  
  
She had been so strong back then, and Leo knew it. Knew that each step away from him had been equal in agony to every second he had forced his eyes shut, disallowing himself to see her again. Because he knew that with one look at her face, he would be sprinting after her, begging her not to go, and she would have been unable to send him away. So he had kept them shut, merely allowing tears to escape, to a sanctuary where Piper was still visible. What Leo would have done to be a tear on his own cheek that day, just to see one last time, as she walked away.  
  
"Piper..." he began, his mind entirely empty of what he would say next. Leo simply knew that one of them would have to speak, and it was his turn to be strong now. His turn to take that first dreaded step. "What... what do you want to do now?"  
  
She dragged herself from the warmth of his clothing, pushing her hair back with both hands and drying tears on the back on her palms. He gazed at her, loving her more with every breath, desperate to take her face in his hands and soothe her reddened cheeks, take her lips to his own and feel their softness beneath him. Instead he simply watched her expression change as the seriousness of his question settled on her shoulders and sunk in.  
  
"I...I don't know." Her eyes flew to the road, to her car, to the pools of light flooding the tarmac. Leo watched her, her saddened face, the strands of pure chocolate brown whipping around her cheeks and chasing each other over her nose, her eyes darting through the thoughts spiralling in her brain.  
  
"We could just leave, couldn't we." Piper stated simply, her face as calm as a sleeping child's. "Just leave. Just go, to Australia, or Europe, or even just New York. We could have the life we always dreamt of." Her eyes didn't meet his; they merely stared ahead of her, seeing the future they were robbed of, seeing the wedding and kids they were deprived of as life tore them apart.   
  
"Piper?" Leo took her hands and held them, just to feel her skin in his once again. Just to make sure she didn't slip away as she had done. "Is that what you want?"  
  
A deep, shuddering breath left her lips, slowly and unsurely. "I don't know, anymore, Leo. There's too many people involved now." Her eyes finally met his, bloodshot but no longer weeping tears. "Are you married, Leo? Do you have a wife, and kids, a two car garage?"  
  
He grinned. Because she was right. "Wife...yes. Kids...no. Two car garage? No... Definitely not." Leo smiled sadly at the image of his house, forming piece by piece in his mind. It was practically the size of a two garage, but most certainly didn't have one.  
  
"What's her name?"  
  
"Lilian. I left her today." Leo admitted freely. He had never felt more at ease with anyone. He would tell her his deepest secrets that no-one else could know, and he knew she wouldn't judge him. She would merely listen, as she always had.   
  
"Why?" Piper inquired, flexing her fingers against Leo's, delighting in the warmth at his fingertips, needing to know these things. Needing to know about his life, that time which she should have been such a big part of.   
  
"I'm out of work, Piper. I have been for a year and a half. She's become alcoholic." He paused and took his free hand, rubbing it over a stubbled chin and sighing deeply. "She was passed out on the stairs today, and I just couldn't take it anymore, you know? I was so sick of trying so hard to scrape together just that little bit of cash, only to know that at the end of the day she'd drink it all in cheap vodka or whiskey." He turned to Piper, watching her reaction. Her face was so calm, so lacking any emotion, and he knew why. Because there was too much emotion to show. Because it had been so long, neither of them knew how to act around the other, or even how they felt now that each had spouses and Piper had children.   
  
"What about you? Do you love Dan?"  
  
His question caught Piper by surprise, to a degree. He had a right to know, of course, but she barely knew herself. Her words came to her as she said them, and each word she said shocked her as much as it did Leo.  
  
"I... I don't know. He's been so good to me, in so many respects, Leo. I know we were forced into it, but he's supported me and loved me since the day we said our vows." She paused and faced the man she loved so much, and it hurt to say the words she had to. "And he's given me Tegan and Jason, Leo." Her face softened as she said her children's names, glowing with the maternal look Leo had always dreamt of her having. But as she spoke of their kids, not her and Dan's. "I love them, Leo. I love them so much, and I wish they were ours. I wish that things had all worked out the way we wanted them to, even now. But - "  
  
"But you can't leave him, or them." He said it simply, his words tumbling as leaden weights to the ground below their clasped hands.  
  
"No."  
  
They sat in silence, each absorbing what had been said. Each knowing that when the next seconds came to pass, they would have to let go again. Because of the commitments they'd made to other people. Other people, who had done nothing wrong, except merely falling in love with someone who could never love them back entirely. Piper's children, who needed a mommy, who needed the security of their parent's relationship to grow up in. Lilian, who needed Leo to help her. Who needed her husband to take her back to who she really was, to hold her hand in the AA meetings, and encourage her through the healing process. And Dan, who had done nothing wrong, except been born to a father with too much ambition and drive. Too many people were involved now. There were too many ties, too many potential broken hearts. Too many commitments had been made in each other's absence.  
  
She let go of his hand, and cupped his cheeks as she had done six years ago. Leo stroked his hand over Piper's hair, that soft velvet he loved so much, the silken strands woven in-between his fingertips. Their lips found each others, hearts screaming out to not let go as tongues hesitantly caressed tongues and his hand stroked her cheek. And once again their tears merged as they said their silent, final, goodbyes.   
  
Breaking apart, Piper reached around her neck, and brought a golden chain over her head. In the artificial light of street lamps, a ring, hanging from the chain, glinted and sparkled as each faceted face of diamond caught the light and danced in it. She opened Leo's hand, and gently twisted the trail of golden links into his palm, the ring landing last, atop the little mound of shimmering gold.  
  
i The tears ran freely down her cheeks as Piper ran down the bank, the sandy path beneath her splashing on to her legs and causing cascades of yellow fountains of the black of her trousers. Tripping, she fell hard against the ground, the roaring of the waves just metres below her filling her entire world. Slowly, she uncurled each of her fingers, to reveal the velvet box Leo had pressed to her hand just minutes earlier.  
  
She knew what it would contain before it creaked open, her fingertips pulling up the lid and revealing it's contents. Knew that she could never own the jewellery as Leo intended her too. But still, it took her breath away.  
  
A simple golden band, shimmering and gleaming in the afternoon sun, a perfect circle of pure yellow gold. And atop it, the most beautiful stone Piper had ever seen; a twelve faceted diamond, each perfectly carved edge catching the sun and delighting in the sea breeze. And engraved on the inside of the band, in elegant, gothic writing, tiny and just perfect, were the words she knew would be written.  
  
"Piper, will you marry me?" /i  
  
As she pressed a final kiss to his forehead, Leo didn't need to ask her what her answer would been, given a perfect world, where their lives were their own to decide. He knew she would have said yes, a thousand times over, and they would have lived as happily as the prince and princess in the fairytales Piper read to her daughter each night. So again, he simply closed his eyes, allowed her silhouette to disappear to the darkness of the night. The Cherokee engine started quietly, and, the traffic having dispersed, Piper took the final turn out to the road, never looking back. Knowing she had made the decision she had to, and knowing she had to stick with it, despite the ache in her heart, the emptiness around her neck. She would never see him again, and she knew she never could.  
  
center~~~/center  
  
Piper climbed into bed beside her husband, having checked on her kids just minutes earlier. She found them sleeping, bathed, contented smiles on their faces and chubby little arms wrapped around their favourite stuffed toys. Little angels, sleeping soundly, dancing through dreamland on a never-ending voyage of discovery.  
  
Dan's arm wrapped around her stomach, pulling her to him and his sleepy voice whispered huskily in her ear, unshaven chin bristling against her cheek. "I'm sorry.." He began, but Piper silenced him with a fingertip to his lips, and a tiny kiss to his forehead.  
  
"It's okay. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Just...just hold me."  
  
Her husband pressed a kiss to Piper's cheek, and wrapped his arms tighter around her, as he had done a thousand times before. She knew the safety of his arms would never leave her, and fell asleep content in the thoughts of her children down the hall, and the peace she had made with herself and Leo.  
  
center~~~/center  
  
Leo's arms picked up Lilian's still sleeping form, her hair falling in light strands, tickling his arm as it swayed. Taking a deep breath, he walked slowly up the stairs to their bedroom, ignoring the peeling wallpaper and shivering cold, and simply laying her down on their bed. Her arms flailed around her and a few sleepy words rasped from her throat.  
  
"Leo? Is that you?"  
  
"Yes, Lil, it's me."  
  
"I... I woke up.. and you weren't here..."  
  
"I know. I'm sorry. I had to go see someone. Sort.. sort some things out."  
  
"Things?" she murmured, arms resting stop her chest as she turned to the side, and her eyes opened a crack.  
  
"Things. We need to get you better, Lil."  
  
"I'm sorry Leo... I'm sorry.."  
  
"It's okay. Ssssshhh, it's okay. We'll get you better." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, stroking her hair from her eyes, and got up.  
  
"Leo? Are you going?"  
  
"Sssh, I'll be right back. Sleep. I just need something to eat."  
  
Her fingers clasped his for a second, and Leo gazed at his sleeping wife. He owed it to her to   
try for her, to try and get her better. He vowed to himself he'd try his best, and slipped out of his jacket, walking slowly down the creaking steps of their staircase. Pausing at the bottom stair, he drew out the gold chain Piper had closed his hand around as she walked from his life once more, and the ring caught the candlelight in the hall.  
  
"Too many commitments, Piper." He whispered to the emptiness. Leo pulled opened the drawer where he had rooted just hours earlier, on his plan to sail away from this life, and saw the spots of dried blood he had made in his panic. Pulling the wooden box all the way out, he buried the ring and necklace at the back on it, under the blood soaked greeting cards they'd never use, under the pack of cards with no two of diamonds.   
  
One day, he'd pull out that chain once more, and tell his grandchildren the story of a man and women who fell very much in love, but couldn't be together. They'd laugh and cry and tell him he was being silly, and that all people who love each other end up together, like in fairytales.   
  
And he'd smile and tell them they were right, as pain shot through his heart.  
  
Fin. 


End file.
